Tops file for the Niobrara interval of the Upper Cretaceous Cody Shale and associated strata in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming

Dates

Publication Date: 2019-02-14
Time Period: 2019

Citation

Finn, T.M., 2019, Tops file for the Niobrara interval of the Upper Cretaceous Cody Shale and associated strata in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming: U.S Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7BZ65CN.

Summary

The Wind River Basin is a large Laramide (Late Cretaceous through Eocene) structural and sedimentary basin that encompasses about 7,400 square miles in central Wyoming (fig. 1). The basin is bounded by the Washakie Range and Owl Creek and southern Bighorn Mountains on the north, the Casper arch on the east, the Granite Mountains on the south, and Wind River Range on the west (fig. 1). Many important conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources have been discovered and produced from reservoirs ranging from Mississippian through Tertiary in age (Keefer, 1969; Fox and Dolton, 1989, 1996; De Bruin, 1993; Johnson and others, 1996, 2007). It has been suggested by numerous authors including: Keefer, 1969; Meissner and others, 1984; [...]

Summary

The Wind River Basin is a large Laramide (Late Cretaceous through Eocene) structural and sedimentary basin that encompasses about 7,400 square miles in central Wyoming (fig. 1). The basin is bounded by the Washakie Range and Owl Creek and southern Bighorn Mountains on the north, the Casper arch on the east, the Granite Mountains on the south, and Wind River Range on the west (fig. 1). Many important conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources have been discovered and produced from reservoirs ranging from Mississippian through Tertiary in age (Keefer, 1969; Fox and Dolton, 1989, 1996; De Bruin, 1993; Johnson and others, 1996, 2007). It has been suggested by numerous authors including: Keefer, 1969; Meissner and others, 1984; Fox and Dolton, 1989, 1996; Johnson and Rice, 1993; Nuccio and others, 1996; and Schelling and Wavrek, 1999, 2001: that various Upper Cretaceous marine shales are the principal hydrocarbon source rocks for many of these accumulations. With new drilling and well completion technologies, equivalent marine source rock intervals, in particular the Niobrara Formation, are now important continuous (unconventional) shale gas and shale oil objectives in other Rocky Mountain basins ((Matthews, 2011; Sonnenberg, 2011; Williams and Lyle, 2011; Durham, 2012a,b, 2013; Taylor and Sonnenberg, 2014; and Hawkins, 2016). In the Wind River Basin the Niobrara is represented by shales, calcareous shales, marls, siltstones, and sandstones in the lower shaly member of the Upper Cretaceous Cody Shale (Finn, 2017) (fig. 2).

Please see supplemental information for associated references. Selected figures have also been included to help describe this data release. These figures are provided in pdf and jpg format. These include:

Fig. 1_Rocky Mountain basins.pdf/jpg. Map of Rocky Mountain region showing locations of Laramide sedimentary and structural basins and intervening uplifts.
Fig. 2_Regional Cretaceous X section.pdf/jpg. Regional east-west stratigraphic cross section of Cretaceous rocks in the Wind River Basin.

Each modified from Finn (2017).

References Cited

De Bruin, R.H., 1993, Overview of oil and gas geology of Wyoming, in Snoke, A.W., Steidtmann, J.R., and Roberts, S.M., eds., Geology of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming Memoir No. 5, p. 836–873.

Durham, L.S., 2012a, Mancos-Niobrara play full of surprises: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Explorer, v. 33, no. 8, p. 14–18.

Durham, L.S., 2012b, What is the tally of Niobrara value: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Explorer, v. 33, no. 8, p. 20.

Durham, L.S., 2013, Rocky operators move cautiously ahead: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Explorer, v. 34, no. 6, p. 6–8.

Finn, T.M., 2017, Stratigraphic cross sections of Niobrara interval of the Cody Shale and associated rocks in the Wind River Basin, central Wyoming: U.S. Geological Scientific Investigations Map 3370, 19 p., 1 sheet.

Fox, J.E., and Dolton, G.L., 1989, Petroleum geology of the Wind River and Bighorn Basins, Wyoming and Montana: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 87-450P, 41 p.

Fox, J.E., and Dolton, G.L., 1996, Wind River Basin Province (35); in Gautier, D.L., Dolton, G.L., Takahashi, K.I., and Varnes, K.L., eds., 1995 National assessment of United States oil and gas resources-results, methodology, and supporting data: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-30, release 2.

Hawkins, S.J., 2016, Assessment of continuous (unconventional) oil and gas resources in the Late Cretaceous Mancos Shale of the Piceance Basin Province, Colorado and Utah, 2016: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2016-3030, 4 p.

Johnson, R.C., and Rice, D.D., 1993, Variations in composition and origins of gases from coal bed and conventional reservoirs, Wind River Basin, Wyoming, in Keefer, W.R., Metzger, W.J., and Godwin, L.H,. eds., Oil and gas and other resources of the Wind River Basin, Wyoming: Wyoming Geological Association, p. 319–335.

Johnson, R.C., Finn, T.M., Crovelli, R.A., and Balay, R.H., 1996, An assessment of in-place gas resources in low-permeability Upper Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary sandstone reservoirs, Wind River Basin, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 96–264, 67 p.

Johnson, R.C., Finn, T.M., Kirschbaum, M.A., Roberts, S.B., Roberts, L.N.R., Cook, T., and Taylor, D.J., 2007, The Cretaceous-Lower Tertiary Composite Total Petroleum System, Wind River Basin, Wyoming, Petroleum Systems and Geologic Assessment of Oil and Gas Resources in the Wind River Basin Province, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-J, Chapter 4, 96 p., CD–ROM.

Keefer, W.R., 1969, Geology of petroleum in the Wind River Basin, central Wyoming: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 53, no. 9, p. 1839–1865.

Matthews, Vince, 2011, Colorado’s new oil boom—the Niobrara: Colorado Geological Survey Rock Talk, v. 13, no. 1, 11 p.

Meissner, F.F., Woodward, J., and Clayton, J.L., 1984, Stratigraphic relationships and distribution of source rocks in the greater Rocky Mountain region, in Woodward, J., Meissner, F.F., and Clayton, J.L., eds., Hydrocarbon source rocks of the greater Rocky Mountain region: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists Guidebook, p. 1–34.

Nuccio, V.F., Finn, T.M., and Johnson, R.C., Thermal maturity data used for the assessment of gas resources in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 96-064, 57 p.

Schelling, D.D., and Wavrek, D.A., 1999, Structural geology and petroleum systems of the Madden field, Wind River Basin, Wyoming: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, v. 83, no. 13 (supplement).

Schelling, D.D., and Wavrek, D.A., 2001, Structural geology and petroleum systems of the northwestern Wind River Basin, Wyoming: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, v. 85, no. 13 (supplement).

Sonnenberg, S.A., 2011, The Niobrara Petroleum System—A new resource play in the Rocky Mountain Region, in Estes-Jackson, J.E., and Anderson, D.S., eds., Revisiting and revitalizing the Niobrara in the central Rockies: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, p. 13–32.

Taylor, James, and Sonnenberg, S.A., 2014, Reservoir characterization of the Niobrara Formation, southern Powder River Basin, Wyoming: The Mountain Geologist, v. 51, no. 1, p. 83–108.

Williams, Peggy, and Lyle, Don, 2011, Bring in the rigs, in Estes-Jackson, J.E., and Anderson, D.S., eds., Revisiting and revitalizing the Niobrara in the central Rockies: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, p. 33–40.

Contacts

Point of Contact :: Thomas M Finn, Southwest Region
Originator :: Thomas M Finn
Metadata Contact :: Gregory Gunther
Publisher :: U.S. Geological Survey
Distributor :: U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase
USGS Mission Area :: Energy and Minerals
SDC Data Owner :: Energy Resources Program

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WRB Niobrara_tops_Metadata.xml Original FGDC Metadata	View	27.82 KB	application/fgdc+xml
WRB Niobrara_tops_Data.xls “Tops Data Excel Spreadsheet”		260.5 KB	application/vnd.ms-excel
WRB Niobrara_tops_Data.csv “Tops Data Comma Delimited Text”		113.95 KB	text/csv
WRB_Niobrara_tops_Data.cpg		5 Bytes	text/plain
WRB_Niobrara_tops_Data.dbf		3.7 MB	text/plain
WRB_Niobrara_tops_Data.prj		168 Bytes	text/plain
WRB_Niobrara_tops_Data.sbn		12.64 KB	x-gis/x-shapefile
WRB_Niobrara_tops_Data.sbx		828 Bytes	x-gis/x-shapefile
WRB_Niobrara_tops_Data.shp		34.52 KB	x-gis/x-shapefile
WRB_Niobrara_tops_Data.shx		9.93 KB	x-gis/x-shapefile
Fig. 1_Rocky Mountain basins.jpg		239.52 KB	image/jpeg
Fig. 1_Rocky Mountain basins.pdf		301.46 KB	application/pdf
Fig. 2_Regional Cretaceous X section.jpg		396.06 KB	image/jpeg
Fig. 2_Regional Cretaceous X section.pdf		644.27 KB	application/pdf
browse_graphic.jpg		33.82 KB	image/jpeg

Related External Resources

Type: Related Primary Publication

Finn, T.M., 2019, Structure contour and overburden maps of the Niobrara interval of the Upper Cretaceous Cody Shale in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3427, pamphlet 9 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:500,000, https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3427	https://doi.org/10.3133/sim3427

Purpose

Depths for the Niobrara interval of the Upper Cretaceous Cody Shale and associated strata are given here for 723 wells in this data release. The purpose for this data release is to provide the database created to characterize the geologic framework used to assess the potential undiscovered continuous (unconventional) oil and gas resources of the Niobrara interval of the Upper Cretaceous Cody Shale in the Wind River Basin. All picks were made by the author from borehole geophysical logs drilled for oil and gas exploration and production.

Tops file for the Niobrara interval of the Upper Cretaceous Cody Shale and associated strata in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming

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